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Thursday, September 19, 2013

Pat's Football Blog has covered the great game of football on every continent to some degree during the first thirty-four months or so of its existence..except one - Antarctica. However, that shall now be rectified, thanks to a series of articles, to be published at irregular intervals in the near future, forming part of a mini-series on the game on the continent and in the sub-Antarctic.

(Granted, the more pedantic readers will correctly point out that one or two of the locations featured during the series are not part of the Antarctic continent proper, but as they are home to a number of Antarctic research stations run by countries such as the UK and Australia, they surely qualify for inclusion.)

First up is a short article on one man's experiences of playing football in the region; Robby van Tongeren, an Australian national who spent his formative years in the Dutch city of Eindhoven, and was previously billeted on Macquarie Island at the Macquarie Island Station, Wireless Hill, between 2010-11, kindly submitted his thoughts on football sub-Antarctic-style earlier this year, and what follows is an interesting compilation of the best of them.

"Macca," as the island is colloquially known, is politically administered by the Australian state of Tasmania, and lies approximately half-way between the southern tip of Tasmania and the Antarctic continent. The island has a year-round population of between 20 and 40 people. Robby van Tongeren is one of them, now back on this island on his second stint there and his fifth in the Antarctic region in all, and here's his take on life and football in the Antarctic region:

"I first arrived in Antarctica back in
2002/3 on my initial stint south at Australia’s Casey station. I was to spend a year there as a Dieso
(diesel mechanic) for the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). Over the summer at Casey I soon learnt that a
high percentage of people followed Australian Rules Football (AFL). Although I am not sure why they call it
football; I can’t figure that out as they use their hands for most of the game
and the ball is.. mmmm.. not round.

"Anyway,
amongst the crew at Casey there was a familiar face in the crowd with a bald
head and big beard and I thought, that’s Mick, from a rival team, Leichardt,
back in the Cairns football competition I used to play against (I was in Edge
Hill United and there was fierce dislike between the 2 teams). After all the pleasantries of slagging each
other off on who had the better team from our playing days, we talked about
football in general. There was some
indoor football played over my year at Casey station, but volleyball was mainly
preferred as [there] was less contact and [everybody] could get involved in the game.

"Moving along to 2010 when I
spent a year at Macquarie
Island (Macca), again as
a Dieso with the AAD. There were quite a
few football fans with a variety of allegiances to teams around the world. Of course, all of them supported the Socceroos
when they were playing, and [also] various European teams such as Liverpool,
Man United, Arsenal, Barcelona, etc.

"This was also the year of the World Cup in South Africa and both Australia and my home team the
Oranje were involved. I was lucky that one of the IT
Communications people here (thank you Trozza) was a keen supporter of football
and we were able to stream and watch the games early in the morning. Because of the bandwidth streaming consumed,
we needed everyone on station to refrain from using the internet while games
were downloaded, otherwise it was
impossible to watch [anything] as the screen would freeze up while trying to stream the
games.

"There were a few diehards who
watched the games “live,” but because it was on early in the morning, most people opted to
stay in bed. This made it interesting as
it would be known by some who won that morning and it was hard not to be told
at breakfast before watching the game. So I avoided the newspapers and people
until I actually watched the downloaded game that night.

"Enough
about the world game, and back to the local one on Macquarie Island. The games were mainly played in the storage
warehouse {known as the "Green Store"] for fun and exercise. The
concrete floor was swept and cleaned before-hand. Machinery and equipment was moved outside to
make room for the match. Plywood boards
was placed around areas like computers, lights and breakable items that were
not easily moved out of harm’s way. Cage
pallets with one removable side were placed upside down to serve as goals.

"Depending on the number of players the teams
were divided up evenly for the game. Players with several different jerseys of their favourite teams were
also on display. There were some discussions on rules but in the end there were
none and the game started with no referee. Being a concrete floor and lots of other hazards like steel posts on the
sides it made for an interesting game.

"Players also wore various footwear from joggers to steel cap boots to Wellington boots. Many players wished they had shin-pads for
protection. Most of those involved in
the game followed other football codes, so there was a lot of pushing and
shoving and chopping at the legs thinking they were playing the squashed ball
game.

"After pointing out to some of them
about what can be done, the game settled down and a good work out was had. Some fancy footwork and shots on goal were
seen during the game. The match lasted
around an hour or so, until everyone decided they had enough. Needless to say,
there were a few sore legs, bodies and faces from wayward shots tackling and the
concrete floor.

"Macquarie Island expeditioners
celebrated Australia
and Waitangi Day on the 1st of February. It was delayed from the usual 26th
January as the New Zealand contingent would be back on station from being in
the field for a month.

"A few hardy souls had an obligatory swim in
the freezing ocean. Then there was food,
drink and general merriment for everyone.
We played a range of sporting games including football. This was played outside the “Green Store”,
which is the island’s main warehouse, as
the weather gods were on our side with a warm sunny day of, oh, about 10 degrees.

"I set up some cage pallets (these are
steel-mesh cargo containers) as goals at each end. These were placed upside
down, creating goals similar to indoor football games, but not as high. Teams were a mix of both male and female
Aussie and Kiwi players. As I mentioned [previously], footwear varied from bare feet to joggers, and steel capped
to wellington boots. There were some
jostling, shoving and Rugby tactics employed
at times by the Kiwi fraternity, but overall the game was played in great
spirits.

"Football down south, well, on Macca, is
mostly enjoyed indoors in the Green Store, due to often inclement weather. But, I guess the most talked about game is
either AFL, Rugby or Cricket as most people
here are from the southern Australian states."-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------AUTHOR'S NOTE: Many thanks go to Robby van Tongeren for taking the time to supply the above article, and also to Nisha Harris from the Australian Antarctic Division for her assistance with organising the article. A pity, however, that the photographs supplied with Robby's story seem to have disappeared!

Please note that the above article was submitted under strict conditions from the Australian Antarctic Division; should you wish to use any of the information contained in the above article, well, no pilfering, please, but kindly submit your request to use the information above to Nisha at:

Nisha.Harris@aad.gov.au-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FOOTBALL BLOGGING AWARDS: Pat's Football Blog has decided to throw hats into two different rings this year with regard to the 2013 Football Blogging Awards: Best Male blog and Best Established blog. Your vote, dear reader, would be immeasurably valued, but regardless which blog tickles your fancy the most, kindly click on/copy the following link to find out more:

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

A squad of twenty-three players representing Tuvalu arrived in Holland on 16/8/13 to play a total of 21 matches against lower-league Dutch opposition in a training camp which will finish off with a game against Eindhoven side Brabantia on 30/10/13.There are a number of changes to the squad from that which took part in the 2011 Pacific Games in New Caledonia; many of the players from the 2011 squad were unable to take such a prolonged time off work to take part in the tour of Holland, which is understandable given that Tuvalu has an unemployment rate of around 80%.

Survivors from the 2011 Pacific Games side include goalkeeper Jelly Selau, defender Etimoni Timuani, midfielders James Lepaio (who scored against Solomon Islands in the competition) and Amatuse Telogo Peni, and forwards Lutelu Tanelua Tiute and Alopua Petoa, who scored a hat-trick against American Samoa in Tuvalu's opening match at the Pacific Games.

Tuvalu's manager for the duration of the team's stay in Holland is Leen Looijen, who has had extensive playing and managerial experience in Holland (NEC Nijmegen being just one of the clubs which he managed), managed in Switzerland (as manager of St.-Gallen) and coached the now expunged Netherlands Antilles national side between 2007-08.

André van der Ley will take up the role of assistant manager; van der Ley was a former player with Go Ahead Eagles and De Graafschaap, and is an ex-futsal international from the days when it was known as indoor football. De Ley was, believe it or not, kit-man for the Dutch national team at the 1998 World Cup.

The squad is being supplemented on occasion by a number of Dutch ex-professional players, one of which is Stan Valckx, who appeared for Holland at the 1994 World Cup Finals.

Back to the present day; please find below information on the Tuvalu squad currently touring Holland.

MANAGER: Leen Looijen (NL) ASSISTANT MANAGER: André van der Ley ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------AUTHOR'S NOTE: Many thanks to Frank Westerink from the Vrienden van Tuvalu/Dutch Support Group Tuvalu for providing the bulk of the information contained in the above article. Other sources of information include the OFC website and Wikipedia. As ever, any errors are the author's and the author's alone.

Frank and the rest of the team are on the lookout for volunteers to assist the Tuvalu team in any way possible during the remainder of their stay in Holland; should you be interested, kindly contact Brenda Mes (volunteer co-ordinator) via the following e-mail address:

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

The Tuvalu national team arrived in Holland on 16/8/13 for an 11-week stay which will see them play a total of 21 matches all across the country.

The squad-list, comprising a squad of 23 players, shows a number of changes from the team which took part in the 2011 Pacific Games, and will published here in full shortly.

At the time of writing, the team has already played six matches, losing all six; a report on the game against SV Panningen will follow shortly, as will match reports on a number of games in due course.

Please find below the full programme, including the games played so far.

About Me

I am an Irishman in exile; a dedicated follower of football (above all, of Liverpool and Newry City), a fan of the round ball but not neccessarily all that goes with it.
My intention was just to use this blog for writing practice, and write about those people and places on the football (soccer) front that seem to go unnoticed. If, by some chance (or misfortune), you find something written here worth using/writing about, PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE AND SEND COPY. Ideas, compliments, complaints and contributions are more than welcome. In any case, hope you enjoy it.
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